Victim of Addiction
by The Magic Bringer
Summary: Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author. Casefile.
1. The Friend

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author. Casefile.**

**The Friend**

"I, uh, have n-n-new evidence on Hannah U-u-underwood's case."

"Hannah Underwood?"

The brunette nodded. Grace Abbot was her name. She had chocolate eyes, a thin face and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose, and was clutching a square brown handbag to her chest. "Sh-she died in 2002," she informed them, and reached into her handbag, puling out a sheath of papers and placing them on the table with shaking hands. "Sh-she was also known as 'V-victim of Addiction'."

Lilly gave her a quizzical look. "Um, it was her s-screen name. That's, uh, how I-I knew her. I-I was her b-best-net-friend," she blurted quickly.

Scotty picked up the papers. "Victim of Addiction," he read. "Name: Erin Collins Hillview?"

"Um, it was a fake name that sh-she used. You know. S-s-so that um, no one would know uh, who sh-she was."

Scotty nodded and continued to read. "Age: 15. Location: Philadelphia. Hobbies: Writing FF! and watching TV…"

Grace nodded. "That's her p-profile. Sh-she was, um, a very p-prolific author. Heaps and heaps of p-p-people had her on their favourites. Sh-she um, had a real ab-bability to keep it um, feeling like it was canon, no matter how outrageous the p-plot was."

"Sorry," Lilly interrupted. "Canon? FF? What did she write?"

"She wrote fanfiction," Grace managed to say without stuttering. "That's what FF st-stands for. Fanfiction is b-best described as writing um, about characters and um, s-s-situations etc, on a TV sh-show. Well, not all of it is TV sh-shows, you can write for b-books and other forms of media as well, b-but V-victim um, only wrote and read about TV sh-shows."

Lilly nodded patiently. "What else?"

"Sh-she just stopped updating her stories one day. We waited for months for an update, and I-I emailed her constantly. Then one day I-I got an email b-back saying that sh-she was dead and this was her b-brother. He asked me to p-p-post a note on all her favourite websites saying that sh-she wouldn't b-be b-back. I-I p-posted another chapter on all her WIPs s-saying that sh-she was dead and not coming b-back, and a note in her p-profile s-saying the s-same."

"How'd you know Hannah's password?" Scotty asked.

"Her b-brother told me. I-I don't know how he knew it."

"If you have evidence on her case, why didn't you come forward before, Grace?" Lilly asked gently.

"B-because I-I didn't know that sh-she had b-been murdered until last week."

At Lilly and Scotty's identical looks of confusion, she elaborated. "We had made a p-pact that we'd meet on our eighteenth b-birthday. We had the s-same b-birthday. I turned eighteen last week, and decided that I'd v-visit V-victim's grave s-so that I would b-be meeting her in a way. I emailed her b-brother again, to ask where she was b-buried. He told me uh, that there was no grave, s-since there was no b-body, they never found it."

"That doesn't mean I was necessarily a murder, Grace. She may have just drowned in a creek or something, as horrible as that sounds"

Grace nodded, and fumbled in her handbag for some more papers. "I-I know. B-but I went and reread all her work, redistributed it – a tribute, s-sort of. I-I um, also read the reviews on her work. I-I uh, found these in-in almost every chapter of every st-story that sh-she wrote."

Lilly picked up the new papers. Certain things were highlighted. She read the first one.

_I'll get you for this. You stole my ideas, you bitch._

**Authors Note:** I only watch Cold Case for the actual case, so that's why the characterization sucks. Hope you like it.Please review if you want more.


	2. The Mother

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author. **

**The Mother**

Lilly read more of the reviews. It went on about how Victim of Addiction had stolen the reviewers ideas. Flicking frantically through the pages, every highlighted section was the same. They all were signed by the same person. Originally an anonymous going by 'Suspect', then moving to a 'Suspect' with an account.

"Sh-she b-blocked anonymous um, reviews when sh-she kept getting flamed." Grace explained when Lilly pointed it out.

"So how do you know that she blocked anonymous reviews if you didn't know she was getting the threats?" Scotty jumped in.

"I knew sh-she was getting the threats originally, b-but she s-stopped telling me when I-I told her to block him. I-I thought they'd stopped."

Lilly nodded. "Okay, thanks for your information, Grace, we'll get back to you."

Grace nodded and stuttered a goodbye.

"It doesn't look promising," Lilly said to Scotty, looking over the file. "We have no body, a previously assumed simple missing persons case has become a murder, and our only suspect we only know by the name 'Suspect'. There was no evidence of a struggle at the home or any of the places that Hannah frequented. We can talk to the brother, see if he knew about the threats his sister was getting, or the parents."

Scotty agreed with her. "Do we have an address?"

Lilly nodded. "Right here. 143 Hillview Avenue."

They drove to Hillview Avenue, and found 143.

"Mrs Erin Underwood?" Lilly asked, peering into the darkened house at the slightly plump woman. She had wiry red hair that resembled that in the photo of Hannah that was on file. Her blue eyes blinked curiously at the two detectives.

"Yes, that's me? How may I help you…" she trailed off, grappling for a name.

"Detectives Rush and Valens, Homicide." Lilly said quickly. "Can-,"

Lilly was cut off mid sentence by the woman. "Joey?" she asked, her tan face draining of colour. "No, not Joey too. I lost Hannah when she was Joey's age too you know," Mrs Underwood pressed her hands together in prayer, pursing her lips together and looking up at Lilly in hope.

"It's not Joey, Mrs Underwood."

"No? What is it then?" Mrs Underwood asked, recomposing herself, assured that Joey was fine.

"We've reopened Hannah's case. New evidence that has been presented by a friend of Hannah's reveals that we may be looking at a murder."

Mrs Underwood frowned. "I see. You would think that I would have adjusted to the idea by now. But these are not things to be spoken of in the open. You should probably come in," she gestured, and Lilly and Scotty walked past her. Once they were all seated around the dining room table, Mrs Underwood spoke. "May I ask which of Hannah's friends had the new evidence? Because none of them seemed to be able to give any of the detectives any help."

Lilly brought out the copy of the profile and placed it on the table. "Did you know that your daughter wrote fanfiction?"

Mrs Underwood nodded. "How could I not? She spent hours on that thing – I was never too sure about it. I don't like the internet, I never did, everyone knows what happens to people who talk to others on the internet."

"But you let Hannah continue anyway?"

Mrs Underwood nodded her affirmation. "Of course. John had me convinced that my worrying was pointless, all the kids use the internet these days he told me. And besides, it was harmless. Hannah wouldn't let us read her work, but it wasn't as if she was talking to strangers, or giving out her real name. Do you think it had something to do with her disappearance?"

Lilly and Scotty both nodded. "Were you aware that Hannah had a best net friend called Grace?" Scotty asked.

Mrs Underwood shook her head. "No. This Grace – she gave you the new evidence?"

"Yes," Scotty replied. "She only recently found out that Hannah hadn't died of natural causes. If we could speak to Joseph, he might be able to tell us a few things."

"Joey? What would Joey know. Joey was only eleven – why would he know anything about his sister's murder? I don't think he had any idea about her life at all, let alone that. We told Joey that Hannah was missing, then dead, but we never told him anything about what the detectives uncovered."

Lilly nodded, bushing her hair behind her ear. "But Joey was the one who told Grace that Hannah was dead. He knew Hannah's passwords, told Grace to tell everyone that she was dead. I really think we need to talk to him, find out how much he really knew – he might have seen something that could be vital evidence."

Mrs Underwood nodded slowly. "Well, you can't speak to Joey today. He's on camp with his school – they're in Miami, they won't be back until Friday."

Lilly and Scotty talked with Mrs Underwood for a short while longer, before deciding that they'd got all they could out of Mrs Underwood, and heading back to the office.


	3. The Suspect

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author. Possible LS.**

**The Suspect **

"Hey, I got an ID on Suspect, Lil," Vera told them, pulling out a file. "Ivan Roberts. Did a few months in a rehab centre last year, but we haven't got much else. Get this: Ivan Roberts lived next door to Grace Abbot at the time. He also went to the same school as her, and had most of the same subjects."

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

"That's not all, either. Ivan Roberts also has another account on – Gracie's Guy. Guess who Gracie is?"

"Grace Abbot. I wonder if she knew that her 'guy' was threatening her best friend."

Scotty snorted. "I wonder why Ivan was threatening his girlfriend's best friend. Gracie's Guy has never written a fanficiton in his life – that shit about stealing his plots ain't true."

Lilly allowed a grim smile to pass her lips. "So why don't we ask Ivan what he has to say about all this?"

"Why don't we?"

Ivan lived in a run down apartment, which was in an extreme state of disarray. There were half smoked smokes lying around on the benches and living room table, as well as week old newspapers and junk mail. Lilly screwed up her nose delicately as she manoeuvred her was through the mess to sit on the couch, which looked like it needed a good scrub. "So," Ivan said, picking up a smoke and lighting it. "What is it that you cops want?"

Scotty began. "Do you know Hannah Underwood?"

Ivan took a puff and shook his head. "I never heard of her in my life."

Lilly looked at Scotty. "So I guess you've never heard of Victim of Addiction, then, either? Because she's dead, and right now, you're our only suspect."

Ivan's forehead wrinkled as he thought about it. "I ain't never heard of these people. How's that make me a suspect."

"Alright," Lilly conceded. "Then putting that aside,"

Scotty picked up her sentence, "how do you know Grace Abbot?"

"Gracie?" Ivan got a disgusted look on his face, and squashed his cigarette on the wooden table, burning it slightly. "Bloody lezzie."

Lilly and Scotty waited expectantly. "The bloody bitch was dating me, and she told me she had fallen in love. Not only had she fallen in love, but with a girl. A girl she'd never even met. What was her name… Erin. Erin Hillview."

"Tell us more about Erin Hillview, Ivan?" Lilly probed. So Ivan did know Hannah, just not her real name. It was starting to seem unlikely that he had murdered her.

Ivan rolled his eyes, standing up and going over to a bar fridge, dangling a cigarette from his mouth that waggled as he spoke. "I ain't got too much dirt on her. Gracie met her over fanfiction."

When it was obvious that Ivan wouldn't elaborate without further prompting, Scotty leaned forward, "Well, Erin Hillview is dead, and if you don't give us a better explanation, you might just find yourself behind bars."

Ivan threw up his hands. "I ain't done nothing."

"Double negative," Lilly smiled.

Ivan sighed, and leant further back in his tattered sofa. "Gracie started it. She had this obsession with crime shows, never missed a single episode of any. She taped one if it was on at the same time as another. Her effing Mom chucked a sad at her, y'know. Said she was wasting her hard earned money on fuck'n tapes." Lilly suspected that the swearing was a creative touch of Ivan's own. She studied his face. He had a strangely relaxed look around him for someone who had just been as-good-as accused of murder.

"I told her that she could bloody download them from the internet. While she was looking for a site that would let her for free – never found one - she discovered fanfiction." Ivan sighed, and took another swig of his beer, lighting up another cigarette. Lilly and Scotty could hardly disguise their disgust at the eighteen year old. He wasn't even legally allowed to drink, for god sake. But they could bust him on that later, first, they wanted their information on Grace and Hannah.

"It was the fuck'n bane of my existence. For weeks it was fanfiction this, fanfiction that, blah, blah, blah. Frankly, I thought it was bloody ridiculous. But Gracie said it was good – it helped her to 'understand'. Anyway, to cut a long story in half, I got hooked. Made an account, Gracie's Guy; then Gracie decides she wants a girl instead. Sure, I started threatening Erin Hillview, review her stories and shit – but I never, ever killed the bitch."

Lilly was inclined to believe him. Although he was a drunk, smoker and in every way a slob, he didn't even get the connection between Victim of Addiction, Erin Hillview and Hannah Underwood, even when they had said that Erin and Hannah were dead and he was a suspect. If anything, he was far too stupid to successfully pull off a murder.

"So you lied when you said you didn't know who Victim of Addiction was?" Scotty asked for clarification, feeling that Ivan still had some things to tell him.

Ivan blinked at him, breathed out, spraying smoke and spit all over them, and finally answered the question after recovering from a coughing fit. "I don't."

"Erin was Victim of Addiction."

Ivan shook his head. "Erin went by the penname of Theos. She had a superiority complex or some shit. Thought she was God. Trust me. Google, in inverted commas, 'Erin Collins Hillview', no inverted commas, fanfiction. Erin was a nut job – everyone thought so."

Lilly and Scotty looked at each other.

**Authors Notes: **And the plot thickens. The belated update is due to several factors, including exams and technical difficulties. All say a great big thanks to Jay, who made me update this week.


	4. The Chatroom

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author.**

**The Chatroom**

Lilly stared at the page in front of her. Ivan hadn't been lying. Erin Collins Hillview and fanfiction had heaps of hits. Grace hadn't been exaggerating when she had said that she was prolific. Lilly scrolled carefully through the mounds of information.

"What you got there, Lil?" Vera asked, peering over her shoulder.

Lilly continued to scroll, then clicked a link to an essay on 'Erin Collins Hillview and Fanfiction - How To Write Like Her'

"Our victim, as Grace said, was a very prolific author in this fanficiton world, more so than I expected. Ivan Roberts says she's a nut job, that half the world agrees with him. I'm trying to find out a bit about this other life of hers."

Vera nodded. "Want me to help?"

Lilly smiled at him. Vera sat down and booted up another computer. "Hey, Lilly, how about this: The Disappearance of Erin Collins Hillview."

"Print it out," Lilly told him. "Then come here. I've found a chatroom with a subject on 'Erin'."

Vera scanned the page, read it, and came over to Lilly's terminal. "Think we should ask some questions?"

Lilly nodded. "You need an account. Hold on." She clicked 'create' and filled out a few boxes, creating the account of a fictional Joey Collins Hillview, even creating an email in the name of Joey Collins Hillview.

After activating her account and such, she went back to the Erin Collins Hillview page. She and Vera read through the entries. The general consensus seemed to be that Erin Collins Hillview had just grown out of fanfiction and been too lazy to update her stories so posted an 'I am dead' notice.

_Joey Collins Hillview:  
_My sister isn't a quitter. She's really dead.

A few minutes later, Lilly and Vera got a reply.

_CSIrox:  
_Hey Joey, welcome to the forum. We all you're not Erin's real brother – his name is Dave. But don't worry! We're sure you can contribute to this discussion. How old are you and where do you live?

Lilly and Vera frowned at each other. Well, they were already lying, I might be easier to get clues if people thought that they were harmless.

_Joey Collins Hillview:_

I'm 15, and I live in Spain. I really love Erin's fics – I can't understand why she'd abandon them like that. Does anyone know what really happened to her?

_Billy Eppes:  
_Nah. Speculation is rife, but nothing solid. Hey, you speak Spanish, right? Like, living in Spain and all? I'm writing a fic where the main character (if I give away too much, you might steal my idea) was actually a Spanish person under witness protection. How would you say 'I think you are a freak and I want you, your miniature poodles and fake nails out of my house, spork'?

Lilly blinked at the screen. "I am not even going to ask," she said to Vera. "Any chance you know the Spanish version of that?"

Vera shook his head, but Scotty, who had just entered the office with coffee, placed three cups on the bench and leaned over, typing the Spanish translation quickly. "So what exactly are you two doing?"

Lilly explained. They all looked at the screen, slightly disappointed. "Doesn't look like we're getting too far. I'll go look for another lead."

Lilly shook her head, standing up for Scotty to sit down. "I'll go, you stay here and translate the Spanish."

_Joey Collins Hillview:  
_But she never, like, told anyone why she left, did she?

_CSIrox:  
_No. Hey, you know how you pretended to be Dave? I remember reading a thing in her profile – she hates her brother. He was always hacking her account and getting into trouble, but her parents thought he was the Baby Jesus.

That was interesting. They really needed to have that talk with her brother – but it was still only Thursday.

_Billy Eppes:  
_Yeah. And her cheating boyfriend. She hated him too.

_Joey Collins Hillview:  
_Hey, I heard that her pen name used to be Theos. Why'd she change it to Victim of Addiction?

_Billy Eppes:  
_I don't know. But it's the main reason that we think she's still alive. The name change happened days before she posted her 'I am dead' notice, and she hadn't updated for months. Which makes me even more annoyed – we all know her policy. She's too lazy to even finish posting.

_Joey Collins Hillview:  
_I guess. Pretty stupid thing to do. I have to go now. What's the link to her profile, again? I lost it.

_CSIrox:_

It's w w w . f a n f i c t i o n . n e t / v i c t i m o f a d d i c t i o n, minus the spaces. Have fun, Joey.

Scotty and Vera signed off, and went to Hannah's profile. After seeing that she had written 54 stories, they decided not to read them all, but they read a few of the more recent ones.

"Nothing much here," Scotty said. "It's all sweet and sugar coated – romance. But the authors notes are a bit revealing. She really, really, seems to be seriously hating her brother, and seriously pissed at her boyfriend – she's just discovered he's cheating."

"Really?" Now they had another suspect. The boyfriend. Not to mention they had to find out who changed her name – maybe they knew something.

**Authors Notes: **It starts to get a little more complicated next chapter. Thanks for reading. If you review, that's fantastic too.


	5. The Boyfriend

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author.**

**The Boyfriend**

Talking to Hannah's mother again got them the information they wanted – who Hannah's boyfriend had been at the time. Mrs Underwood told them that her daughter had been dating Colin Pemberton for almost a year when she had gone missing. According to her, Colin was a very nice young man who had only one drawback, which was his obsessiveness. Everything had to be perfect. He had, she told them, been very upset when Hannah had disappeared, and assisted as much as he could in the police investigations the first time around. When they mentioned to Mrs Underwood that they would like to speak to him again, since for some reason his 'assistance' had never been recorded, she promptly gave them an address. Apparently they still kept in contact, and Colin looked after Joey at the local school.

Vera and Jeffries went to interview Colin. "Your ex girlfriend, Hannah Underwood, is dead."

Colin nodded, and looked down at his lap at the folded white handkerchief. "Did you find a body, then?" he asked, looking at them through his coloured contact lenses – currently a unnatural shade of green. He had spiky brown hair with peroxide tips, and a dark brown tan. He took off his watch while he was speaking to them, and began to adjust it to the time on the clock on the wall. "It was out by five seconds," he told them by way of explanation. Once it was fastened back on his arm, he dropped his hands back in his lap, and Vera began to explain that Hannah appeared to have been under the impression that he was cheating on her when she had died.

Colin's face took on a look of shame. "I'm sorry that she had to learn of it. Yes, I was cheating on her. I understand that in your line of work you may take it as a motive for me to kill, her, but I assure you, I did not."

"How about who you were cheating on her with?"

"At the time of her death?" Colin asked.

Jeffries nodded. "Yes. They too, have motive."

Colin paused. "If you'll excuse me for a second," Colin stood up and went into another room. When he re-emerged, he was carrying a laptop. He placed it in front of Vera and Jeffries. It was open to a Microsoft word document, titled 'Diary.' They were about halfway through the document. The top of the page was headed 17 August, 2002;18:00:21

_I have just received news of Hannah's death. I cannot help but wonder that Heidi may have had something to do with it. It was only yesterday she was saying that it would be good if Hannah was dead, so we could be together openly. I think this a bit premature of her, as we have been going behind Hannah's back for but two days, and not many of my affairs last much longer than this anyway. _

Jeffries read the paragraph out loud to Colin. "Who's Heidi?"

Colin waved a hand. "It wasn't her. She was spotted by several different people two hours before Hannah's disappearance, boarding a plane to Switzerland, not to mention official records. She was on that flight when Hannah disappeared. Heidi was only here for a short holiday."

Vera nodded. "We're going to need to take this for a while," he told Colin.

Colin looked slightly stricken. "But my records!" he exclaimed. Seeing the looks on Vera and Jeffries' faces, he conceded. "If you must. You may find it helpful to know that I have a document in there labelled 'Hannah's Disappearance'. It has as best a timeline as I could construct, with several witness statements on where Hannah was and what she said and did in the days preceding it. The detectives who worked the case the first time around said it wasn't reliable evidence," he sniffed disdainfully, as if it were a disgrace that he had not been taken seriously. "But I know that my record keeping is meticulous. It cannot be wrong."

Vera nodded. "Is there anything else you'd like to add, anything that you may not have thought anything of before now?"

Colin sported a look that seemed almost as if he were in pain. "She did not have a very healthy relationship with Joey. I do not believe that he had anything to do with it, as he's, quite frankly, a nice kid, but you would probably accuse me of withholding information if I didn't tell you.

Back at headquarters, they were going over the evidence again, as they had hit a dead end until they could talk to Joey, and Joey's flight didn't come in until nine the next morning.

**Authors Notes: **Next time: Grace makes another appearance, shedding some light on the finer details of the case.


	6. The Girlfriend

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author.**

**The Girlfriend**

**Dedication: **I dedicate this chapter to Jay the Vampire Slayer. Thanks for reviewing and being a great friend. I'm glad that you like the story so far. (Especially since you don't watch Cold Case) : ) Hope your chicken pox clear up soon, Jay.

Grace shivered. "Cold, i-isn't i-it?" she asked, drawing her coat closer around her body.

"Not anymore. Hannah's case, that is. But I'm beginning to understand why it became so. The witnesses are utterly incompetent. Grace, why didn't you tell us you had a romantic interest in Hannah?" Scotty snarled, staring her straight in the eye, so close to her that their noses were almost touching.

Grace's stuttering seemed to increase at the accusation. "I-I-I-I-I,"

"I what?" Scotty said impatiently, pounding his fist on the table.

"I-I-I-I," Grace managed.

Lilly smiled patiently. "It's okay, take your time."

"I-I-I-I d-didn't th-think th-th-th-th-that i-it would m-matter."

"Well does matter, Grace. The guy who was writing threatening reviews to Hannah? Ivan Roberts. What else haven't you told us?"

"I-I-I-I s-swear! I-I've told you everything!" Grace gasped frantically.

Lilly sat down next to Grace, only millimetres apart. "It's okay Grace. Any little detail can help. Why don't you tell us about how you met Hannah?"

Grace began to recount the tale. She had been sitting on her computer at home, flicking through fanficiton. She grinned as she realised that her favourite author, Theos, had updated her story, 'The Pattern of Leaves.' She clicked on the link and waited impatiently for the page to upload. She rolled her eyes as the bar on the bottom showed that it was only ten percent loaded, and got up from the computer chair. She walked down the hallway into the kitchen, and put a pop tart in the toaster. Once it was ready, she grabbed it and slapped it on a plate, before she walked back to the computer. The page had loaded. She eagerly scanned the contents – and her face fell.

_Dear readers,_

_I apologise for the delay. My home computer is not working, and in order for me to get this message to you, I have had to steal a school computer at lunch. _

_Sorry!_

Grace, annoyed, began to type out an angry but formal review.

_Theos,_

_I understand that you have problems with your computer, but why couldn't you copy the file to a disk and take it to school and upload it like you have this notice? I find it very annoying that you have actually finished writing this story, but I am unable to read it regularly because you keep having these 'problems'. You want to know what I think? I think you're just being lazy. Lift up your game, girl._

_Grace (Gracie Grissom313)_

About ten minutes later, Grace noticed a new email in her inbox. It appeared that Theos had gotten her email address from her profile.

_Grace,_

_I'm sorry that you feel that way about my work. I will admit that the technical problems are a falsehood, since you read and review all my work, so I think you deserve to know. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I'm in the hospital at the moment so I have no access to my home computer on which my chapters are stored. I don't want all my readers knowing, so I'd appreciate your silence,_

_Thankyou,_

_Erin Collins Hillview_

_PS: How would you like to be my pen pal?_

"I-It just went on from th-there," Grace told them, shrugging. "We wrote b-back and forth, b-became real close, we'd email heaps while sh-she was i-in hospital. Sh-she told me her real name after five months,"

Lilly nodded. "You didn't think it was important for us to know that her penname was changed from Theos to Victim of Addiction? Or that she had frequent hospital visits?"

Grace frowned. "Wasn't it on the file? She had cancer. Cancer of the throat. From her father's addiction to smoking. She made me promise that if she died of the throat cancer, I'd change her name to reflect that her father's addiction killed her. We joked around, I'd call her victim of addiction to cheer her up."

Scotty and Lilly exchanged glances. It hadn't been on the file. The question was: was it true, or had Hannah just made it up like her name?

A chat to Mr and Mrs Underwood established that Hannah had made it up, probably to get sympathy. Furthermore, Mr Underwood had never touched a cigarette in his life. He was an asthmatic. They did, however, confirm that Hannah had frequent visits to the hospital. Hannah had claimed that she was clumsy and she sucked at gym, which caused her to get injured all the time, but they had doubted that. When asked why they didn't do anything, they said that they had hoped that it was what Hannah said. It was easier to believe the lies than to see the truth.

"Well," Scotty told Jeffries as they walked out. "We're back at square one until we can talk to Joey."

Jeffries shook his head. "Not exactly. If we can find out who was beating Hannah up, I recon we can find our murderer."

"Yeah, but how we gonna do that without her brother? It don't seem like any of the people around here except him knew anything much about her."

**Authors Notes: **Next chapter, the brother finally makes an appearance. And it's my birthday on Sunday. I'll be 15! (Yay!)


	7. The Brother

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author.**

**The Brother**

Joey was unlike they had expected. He was short and twig like, with a haircut the looked like a cat had been hacking at it. His eyes were red with tired and he was slumped loosely in the chair.

"You knew your sister pretty well, huh?" Lilly smiled.

Joey gave them a brief, sad smiled. "Yeah. Not as well as Cameron did, though."

"Cameron?"

"Her boyfriend."

"Wasn't Colin her boyfriend?"

Joey shrugged. "He was her decoy. Cameron was the guys she was really with. I like Colin a whole lot more than I like Cameron."

"This Cameron, what was he like, how'd they meet?"

Joey looked down at his baggy jean and twisted his sports shirt in his fingers. "Cameron was looking after me at school. At our school, we've got ten to seventeen year olds. The seventeen year olds look after the little tens. When I was ten I was assigned Cameron Reid as my mentor. As part of the programme, Cameron was supposed to spend time with my family. Hannah was taken with him. She asked me to 'visit' her next time Cameron had to spend time with me."

"_Joey!" A girl with long wiry red hair pulled into a ponytail called out to a younger version of Joey. She beckoned over toward him, adjusting her pink shirt and looking down to make sure that it fit properly. She wiped a loose strand of hair behind her hair and glanced briefly at the girls that were sitting with her._

"_Come on, Cameron," Joey mumbled, walking toward his sister. "Hey Hannah."_

"_Hi Joey," she said, then smiled widely at Cameron and giggled. "Hi Cameron,"_

_Cameron grinned at her. "Hi, Hannah, right?"_

_Hannah nodded eagerly and smiled. "You can call me Cam. See you around?"_

_Hannah nodded again, and waved goodbye to Joey and Cameron. "Dude," Cameron said to Joey. "Your sister is hot for a fourteen year old."_

_Joey just mumbled something. _

"They started dating after that. Every time that she went out with Cameron, I'd go with them, and they'd get rid of me halfway through the evening. I knew a lot about her. Eventually, they just stopped taking me along at all. I guessed her password – it wasn't as if she made it exactly difficult. She talked about Cameron all the time, for the first few months when they were dating. Then she started coming home with bruises. I'd put money on the fact that it was Cameron. He was abusive and a druggie."

"How do you know this?"

Joey's eyes filled with pain. He breathed out deeply, and closed his chocolate eyes.

"_Cam!" Joey heard a pain filled yelp that sounded a bit like his sister. He poked his head around the door. Hannah and Cameron were lying fully clothed on Hannah's bed, kissing passionately, but Cameron's fist was buried in Hannah's stomach. Cameron looked up and saw Joey._

"_Joey! Dude, me an' your sister are just having fun. Playing games, mate. See this?" he held up a small bag of weed that he had plucked from the table. "Got this out of the garden. It looks like drugs, but it ain't. Do me a favour, buddy, try and sell this for me. I'll give you half the money you make. It should be $100 for this, so you'll get fifty."_

_Joey smiled and came over to where Cameron and Hannah were sitting. He ignored the look on Hannah's face. "You're so cool, Cameron!" he took the 'garden' and put it in his pocket. _

"_Not a problem, Joey. Anything for Hannah's brother," he smiled at Hannah, and they started to kiss again. _

_Joey screwed up his nose. "Ewww!" he ran out of the room, the weed hot in his pocket. _

"I swear, I thought it was a game. I didn't know what Cameron was really giving me."

Lilly frowned, and looked over at Scotty. "You wouldn't, by any chance…"

"Happen to know where Cameron is now?"

Joey raised his hands. "No idea. But if it helps, he's got brown hair and eyes, and a crooked nose."

"Anything else?" Scotty asked, just to be sure.

Joey almost shook his head, then hesitated. "Look, my sister and I didn't get on all that great, mainly because I went through her everything. Her laptop is still in her room. It has diary entries for every day up till her disappearance and all of her stories."

He paused. "I read some of them, when I…missed her sometimes. They're really good."

Lilly nodded. "Alright. Thanks, Joey."


	8. The Murderer

**Victim of Addiction**

**Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author.**

**The Murderer**

Cameron Reid had a dark tan and hair that reached to his shoulders. Like Joey had described, he had a crooked nose. "So, what happened with that?" Scotty asked in an attempt to lessen the hostility.

Cameron gave a snort. "Psychotic girlfriend a while back. A real bitch, she was."

"Yeah?" Vera asked. "What was her name?"

Cameron was still under the impression that they were just citizens. "Hannah. She was a redhead. Had the temper to go with it too. I'd much prefer a blonde – you know how it is, blondes have more fun," he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Scotty nodded. "Yeah. I agree. But sadly, Hannah is dead," he pulled out his badge.

Cameron raised his hands. "Whoa! I never did nothing to that bitch!"

"Well, that may be so, but you're going to have to come back with us for a few questions," Vera told him, and Scotty lead his to the car.

"We have a witness saying that you were abusing Hannah at the time of her disappearance. Maybe it just got out of hand?"

Cameron snorted. "You're full of shit. I wasn't the one who wanted her dead. That would be Colin."

"Colin Pemberton?" Cameron nodded.

"He looks all innocent when you talk to him at first – a bit of a freak, but nice. He's anything but nice. He wanted Hannah to himself, but I wasn't gonna share."

Lilly gave a clearly fake smile. "Sorry, Cameron, but you're going to have to pull the other one. We have Colin's diary from that time, there's absolutely nothing to suggest he had anything to do with it."

"Well he did! He helped too!"

Lilly paused and looked at him. Cameron was trying to reverse what he had said somehow. "That came out wrong!"

"It certainly did. So you did have a part in killing Hannah Underwood?"

"Do I get some kind of deal if I tell you exactly what happened?"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "No. Consider it lucky that we didn't catch you before."

Cameron put his head in his hands, and began to recount what had happened.

_Hannah was wearing a plain olive green tee and dark black jeans. She knocked on the door and Cameron opened it, dressed only in his red and white polka dot boxers and holding a stubby in his right hand. Hannah winced visibly at the sight of the alcohol and instinctively drew her arms around herself protectively. "Hello luvvie," Cameron slurred, hugging her with the arm that was also holding the stubby and spilling some on her shirt._

"_Cam," she whined. _

_Cameron grabbed her hand and pulled it to his chest. "Scratch," he commanded, and Hannah obliged, looking disgusted as she massaged his chest hair. "Now luvvie, loosen up. Here, have some," he shoved a stubby into her hand and watched as she took a swig awkwardly. She burped, quickly covering her mouth. _

_Cameron began to laugh at her. "Come on in, luvvie."_

"_I have a name, Cameron Jonathon Reid! Use it." Hannah stormed angrily as he pulled her inside. Cameron put his stubby on the bench, and took hers and placed it on the bench also. _

"_Aw, luvvie," he told her as he leaned toward her for a kiss. _

_She slapped him. "Look, _Cameron_, I came here tonight to tell you that if you don't start treating me properly, I'm going to leave you."_

_Cameron's face contorted into the very picture of rage as he delivered a punch to her jaw. He stood over her, satisfied, as she sat on the ground crying and holding her jaw as she rocked back and forth._

"_Where would you go without me, Hannah? You have no one."_

_Hannah managed to speak through her tears and her probably broken jaw. "That's not true! Colin wants me!"_

_Cameron laughed. "Not true, Hannah. See, Colin is here tonight. He found out about your cheating on him."_

_Colin emerged from one of the rooms. "HI Hannah," he said, smiling maliciously. _

"_Colin! Please, help me!" Colin shook his head, telling her that cheating on him was unacceptable. Hannah retorted that he was doing the exact same thing, but Colin didn't seem to be listening to her._

_Colin pulled a pair of latex gloves, and handed a pair to Cameron. "Do not take these off until I tell you," he instructed._

"_Colin? Cameron?" Hannah said warily. "What are you doing? Why?"_

"_Killing you," Colin told her as he tied her arms together with a length of rope. Cameron tied her legs together. They tightened to knots to make sure she couldn't move. _

"_Why!"_

"_Because, bitch. You told everyone – even freaks on that freak site who don't even matter – that Colin was your boyfriend."_

"_They're not freaks! They do matter. Oh, please, why are you doing this?"_

_They didn't answer. Colin grabbed a roll of duct tape and peeled the end off. He wrapped it repeatedly around her head so that she couldn't speak._

"_You know Hannah, it's kind of ironic. You making me watch all those crime shows with you – they taught me how not to get caught. So," Colin gave a feral grin at this point. "I guess you really are, in a twisted kind of way – a victim of your own addiction."_

_Cameron then went and got a knife. "Those crime shows also showed me how to slit someone's throat properly," he commented as he and Colin lifted Hannah onto a sheet of plastic. Colin held her still, while Cameron pushed her chin down to her chest and used the knife to slit her throat. _

_They rolled her up in the plastic sheet and used some extra rope to tie the ends together, a bit like a mega sized Christmas Cracker._

_Colin glared at Cameron. "Put the knife in there too. Come on."_

_They dumped the body into Colin's fathers Ute. "I guess this is the last time we'll see each other, Cam. Nice knowing you,"_

_Cameron nodded. "Bye." Colin drove off and around the corner before going out of sight, Hannah struggling for her last few seconds of life in the back._


End file.
